Viewing 14 posts - 41 through 54 (of 54 total)
  • Another alcohol Q, am I an alcoholic?
  • roper
    Free Member

    A simple way to look at it is, “is your drinking having a negative effect on you or others around you?”
    On a side note, alcoholics don’t just sit on the bench and wee themselves in the park.
    They can be high functioning and can go weeks, months or years without a drink.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    I know what the OP means by drink calling you, but I think it’s more conditioning than addiction. We used to drink 1-2 glasses of wine every day over dinner, and I often felt I had to have a glass of wine but it was mainly habit. Cut right back now to only drinking Fri/Sat night (mainly due to my expanding waistline).

    pjt201
    Free Member

    @bigdummy

    I’d say in that example it’s probably you who’s annoying rather than your wife

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    aracer
    Free Member

    It is indeed bollocks – I get straight into needing to consult a professional just because I have more alcohol tolerance than I did at 14 (given my aunt died of alcohol related problems). I reckon it’s possibly even counter-productive as it allows people to dismiss real alcohol related problems (ie annoying your wide).

    hora
    Free Member

    Post-festive season and with the bad weather I found I’d slipped into a couple of bottles of beer or a couple of glasses of red during the week then abit more at weekends. Not stupid amounts more but enough that it became a routine and my body didn’t have a rest.

    Now its Monday, Tues, Wed – no alcohol. Thursday – two bottles (Dragon Stout) allowed. Friday- 1/2bottle of red/two bottles of Stout. Sat- same or two double rums instead of the wine.

    When you think about the wine (I do sometimes as its routine/habit forming in the least)- then it should spur you to have a break even more.

    One thing that I find with alcohol- it slows my heart right down so I’ll literally not move at all all evening then fall asleep by 10pm.

    If I have an alcohol free night I need to do stuff/tv is boring and things get done. I also go to sleep at 11pmish.

    BigDummy
    Free Member

    I’d say in that example it’s probably you who’s annoying rather than your wife

    Indeed I am, as are many people, much of the time.

    But periodic annoyingness =/= alcoholism. 🙂

    pondo
    Full Member

    I do wonder about myself. When I lived on my own I’d drink every night, and quite a bit – now I’m a grown-up responsible married man, I drink on weekend evenings and maybe a Thursday night, if it’s a bad week. So I drink a lot less than I used to, but still, I do wonder – I do just like drinking, and being drunk. Don’t need a reason, I’m happier staying in and watching a film than I am down the pub.

    mintimperial
    Full Member

    Pissheads live longer than wowsers.

    (Yeah yeah I’m cherry picking whatever. Still interesting.)

    OP if you’re not happy with your level of drinking you should probably reduce it until you are, but for god’s sake don’t beat yourself up for having a drink if you want one, life’s hard enough as it is without paying attention to guilt-tripping puritans.

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    Not being able to manage without a drink makes you an alcy. A small or large capacity for booze is sort of irrelevant, some of the properly off the rails alcoholics I’ve know can get smashed on very little booze – a can of cooking lager and they’re away, their problem isn’t amount they drink, its just that they can’t cope with not being drunk

    This. OP, if you think you are drinking too much stop and have a break, for your own piece of mind at least. I got to the point where I was drinking minor amounts every evening – a pint of beer, a glass or wine or a G&T – after the kids were in bed. I know it was a crutch for stress relief.

    I decided to use Lent as an excuse to give it a break, so I haven’t had a drink since mid-Feb – although I’m racking it up for the end of lent of Friday without guilt, becuase I simply enjoy a drink, although not being drunk and have all the responsibility that comes with 2 young Kids to ensure I self-moderate.

    badnewz
    Free Member

    As much as I curse them, hangovers always keep my drinking to a reasonable limit. I had a busy social week just gone and spent the weekend in bed feeling rotten.
    Someone told me a definition of an alcoholic is someone who can’t stop drinking for two days.

    slowoldman
    Full Member

    Too much of anything is bad for you. If you think enjoying a glass or two of wine with a meal is alcoholism you don’t understand alcoholism.

    ddmonkey
    Full Member

    I would define addiction as needing to have a drink to get through the day, as opposed to feeling like one at the end of everyday which is just a habit.

    I always feel like having a drink at the end of the day, a glass or two of wine, but don’t have to…

    Midnighthour
    Free Member

    Being able to take a break does not necessarily mean all is well.

    A relation of a friend started drinking in his early teens but could always stop if he wanted to, often for weeks or a month. This did seem to be accurate, the ability to stop and has remained true all his life. So alls well? Not really…

    When he went on a bender every few weeks or months I have been told he would sometimes be bed ridden for several days from the after effects. Some periods he drank large amounts for days or weeks running, in between the breaks. But there were always gaps of weeks at a time.

    He is in his 50’s now and has developed epilepsy that is related in some way to alcohol, so is on pills all the time. He has liver damage, gout, various other issues including a near death experience from an alcohol related/aggravated gut problem that then involved major surgery and which could come back (yes, he still drinks).

    He has no partner, no kids, hangs around with alcoholics. He did have a partner within my memory but it did not last long as I believe he used to hit her when on a bender.

    Being able to abstain for a short period of days or a month means nothing, its not much of an indicator if you are an alcoholic or not. Its more complex and indeed more scary than that.

    All addicts think they can stop, its a viewpoint that empowers their belief that they are ‘ok really, don’t have any problem’.

    Being ‘able to stop anytime I want’ also can be used to brush off the fears and distress of the people who have to live with an alcholic.

    I know of someone else who was drinking shorts at breakfast and who sunk so low in the ‘its not a problem’ belief that he blamed his teenage daughter (trying to do her exams) for ‘being the problem’ when she could not cope with his appalling behaviours.

    He lost his wife and kids in the end, when he went straight back to drinking when released from rehab. A man who knew how to put himself first. He got put on a liver transplant list (what a waste of a liver) but died from alcohol related injury before he got one. He was found dead after no one had seen or heard from him for days. It took that long for someone to notice.

    He was really loved by his family once. You can destroy any amount of love if you really make the effort….

    Frankenstein
    Free Member

    If you’re question yourself…make a change and cut down?

    I don’t drink as it taste like blurgh except expensive wine in Oz Mmm!

    Green tea anyone?

Viewing 14 posts - 41 through 54 (of 54 total)

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